Sheriff Brown's Biographical Information

Bill Brown was first elected as Santa Barbara County’s Sheriff-Coroner on November 7, 2006, and was re-elected to his second term in June, 2010. Sheriff Brown began his law enforcement career in 1977 with the Pacifica Police Department in the San Francisco Bay area.  In 1980, he transferred to the Inglewood Police Department.  He served that Los Angeles County community until 1992, when he was selected as chief of police for the City of Moscow in Idaho.  In that position he was responsible for overseeing police operations for both the City of Moscow and the University of Idaho.  In 1995, Brown was selected as chief of police for the City of Lompoc, being only the eighth person to hold the title of police chief in that community since it incorporated in 1899. He led the Lompoc Police Department for the next 11 years until being elected to his present office.

Sheriff Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Redlands in 1987, and received a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California in 1995.  He was president of the 91st Class of the Delinquency Control Institute, and is a graduate of the Northwest Command College, the 169th Session of the FBI National Academy, and the 33rd Session of the FBI National Executive Institute.

Sheriff Brown is a past president of the California Police Chiefs’ Association, former chairman of the Santa Barbara County Law Enforcement Chiefs, and former executive director of the Santa Barbara Regional Narcotic Enforcement Team.  He currently serves on the board of directors of the California State Sheriffs’ Association and as a Commissioner on the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission for the State of California.

Active in his community, Sheriff Brown serves as an honorary board member for the North County Rape Crisis and Child Protection Center and Santa Barbara Domestic Violence Solutions, and as an advisory board member of the Anti-Defamation League.  He is also a steering committee member for both the Santa Barbara County Reentry Project and Santa Barbara’s “Fighting Back” (Against Alcohol & Drug Abuse), sits on the Lompoc Hospital District Board of Trustees, and is on the board of directors for the United Boys and Girls Club and the Pierre Claeyssens’ Veterans Museum and Library.

Sheriff Brown is deeply committed to the philosophy of community policing and corrections, where peace officers and citizens work together to identify and seek long term solutions to problems relating to crime, fear of crime, neighborhood decay and quality of life.  Sheriff Brown and his wife Donna, have been married for 30 years and have three children.